How Do You Say "Quelle Relief" in German?

According to a just-released German study, there is no link--no, none whatsoever--between Muslim immigration and an increase in Judenhass in Germany.

In other nothing-to-see-here-y'all-best-move-along-now news: Major French-Muslim website tweets ‘hit list’ featuring famous Jews and Corbyn’s ‘anti-Semitism’ could drive Jews from UK, Jewish leader says.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

The CBC--Biased, Not Tough (Duh!)

Upon reading the CBC Ombudsthingy's latest ruling--she concluded, quelle surprise, that a Ceeb interviewer was not biased when savaging questioning an Israeli politician--I couldn't help but chortle.

"Tough, not biased," eh?

Now, that's hilarious. (I can always tell when a Ceeb interviewer is questioning a conservative and/or non-lefty Israeli. The CBC interlocutor gets an edge, a tone, in his/her voice that simply isn't there when interviewing others. If that, in and of itself, isn't evidence of "bias," I don't know what is.)

Want more evidence of the Ceeb's obvious bias? How 'bout this? Or this?

I wouldn't bother complaining to the Ombudsthingy about it, though. What with her being a die-hard company gal and all, she wouldn't be able to perceive Ceeb bias if it leapt up and bit her on the tuches.

The Big Lie of Deir Yassin

The Big Lie: bloodthirsty Jews "massacred" helpless, innocent Arabs in the peaceful village of Deir Yassin.

The truth: there was no massacre.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Is It Time to Stop Genuflecting To "Indigenous Ways of Knowledge" (IWK) As a Way to Expiate Residual Guilt for Residential Schools?

This article makes the case for it:
Formally recognizing the harm done by the residential school system is a laudable goal. But I have yet to see any evidence that scholars create knowledge in fundamentally different ways, based on their ethnicities, as IWK proponents claim.

It is entirely true that Indigenous cultures have amassed valuable knowledge for millennia—from the creation of beautiful and elaborate origin stories, to the development of ecological know-how, to the observation of basic principles of astronomy. But these elements tend to be universal within all cultures, including Western cultures as they have passed through earlier stages of scientific development.

In recent centuries, the Western tradition has created a suite of intellectual tools that did not develop in other cultures–such as the scientific method, which requires that new claims be tested, replicated and scrutinized by one’s peers before being accepted. As applied through such mechanisms as peer review, the scientific method permits us to separate fact from folklore. To the extent the implementation of IWK would require the dilution or relaxation of these practices, it would undermine one of the primary purposes of our universities since the Enlightenment.
The Enlightement? How Eurocentric can you get, you racist! (That's me channeling guilt-ridden "progressives.") 

Talk About a Rush to Judgment

An "improvised explosive device" is detonated at a restaurant in Mississauga, injuring 15 people, and police immediately rule out "terrorism"?

How can that be?

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Cutlery a Preventative for Clitorectomy?

Yup:
DON, May 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Swedish city is advising girls who fear being taken abroad for forced marriage or female genital mutilation (FGM) to tuck a spoon in their underwear before going through airport security.

Airport staff in Gothenburg have been told how to respond in such circumstances, said Katarina Idegard, who is in charge of tackling honour-based violence in Sweden's second biggest city.

"The spoon will trigger metal detectors when you go through security checks," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "You will be taken aside and you can then talk to staff in private." 
"It is a last chance to sound the alarm," Idegard added.

Today's Limerick

Terry Glavin's last column got singed.
"Israel makes some crazed, " he's now whinged.
Should he look in the mirror
It couldn't be clearer--
He might be the one who's unhinged.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

A Tribute to the Late Philip Roth

I awoke to the news that Philip Roth has died at the age of 85. It is unfortunate, though hardly surprising, that this great writer will now be reduced to his most notorious (and, IMHO, far from his best) work. (Well, he did come up with that scene in which he disrespects a slab of raw liver--so I suppose he has only himself to blame for such a complaint.)

Earlier this year, he was interviewed by the New York Times. I especially like this bit wherein he sums up the bathos of the writer's life:
C.M. Looking back, how do you recall your 50-plus years as a writer?

P.R.
Exhilaration and groaning. Frustration and freedom. Inspiration and uncertainty. Abundance and emptiness. Blazing forth and muddling through. The day-by-day repertoire of oscillating dualities that any talent withstands — and tremendous solitude, too. And the silence: 50 years in a room silent as the bottom of a pool, eking out, when all went well, my minimum daily allowance of usable prose.
Personally, I have never read Roth for his sex scenes (which are too phallocentric for me, and which I have tended to skim or skip over). I read, past tense--and read, present tense--Roth for his way with words and for his electrifying flights of prose, of which the above represents the merest taste.

Fortunately, he has left us plenty of heady writing, a lasting legacy which should have been acknowledged with a Nobel literature prize. And when you consider some of the lesser lights who have won it (Harold Pinter? Bob Dylan?), it seems clear that Roth was well and truly robbed.

Update: Don't miss Tablet's "Remembering Philip Roth."

Barbara Kay and the "Abominable" Post Man

Yesterday, the National Post printed my letter objecting to NatPo columnist Terry Glavin's use of the word "abomination" re Israel's actions in Gaza.

Today--hurray!--Barbara Kay elaborates on--and excoriates--Glavin's abominable word choice:
Well, that’s quite a strong word, abomination. A very damning word. Myself, I save it for truly depraved actions like the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons on whole villages of innocent people — man, woman and child — by a monstrous tyrant who will stop at nothing to retain power, and who has proved many times that he’s devoid of any respect for the lives of those who aren’t kin or politically useful. I’m referring to Syria’s Assad, of course — and having read Glavin’s columns over the years, I know he shares my horror.
And this explains some of my surprise. “Abomination” is not a word I would ever use for any engagement with enemy forces undertaken in a democratic nation whose military, made up of ordinary citizens, comes out of a culture in which respect for human life is legendary.
Kay goes on to provide examples of actions that do satisfy the meaning of "abomination"/"abominable":
Hamas provided free transportation to the security fence for all Gazans, including women and children. They were paid $14 a head or $100 per family to attend. The injured received $500. That’s pretty abominable. So’s this: Hamas gave everyone with a video camera VIP access to “the show,” and free wifi too to make sure no injury went unrecorded (both real and fake: one video shows an “injured” victim borne away on a stretcher hopping off completely unscathed when presumably out of camera range.)
She concludes in a more-in-sadness-than-in-anger kind of way:
Israel is constantly subjected to double standards — by the UN, by biased journalists, by anti-Semites on social media. In choosing to use this morally charged locution, “abomination,” with regard to the IDF, even the brilliant and knowledgeable and honourable Terry Glavin, whose writing on foreign affairs I greatly admire, has not only succumbed to uncharacteristic rhetorical carelessness, but in doing so, has given comfort and ammunition to polemical jackals for whom he normally and justifiably feels the greatest contempt.
Well, there's a sucker born every minute--and, in the bamboozling department, Hamas has it all over old P.T.!

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

CBC Ombudsthingy Shoots Down Honest Reporting Canada Complaint Re the Ceeb's Flagrantly Biased Gaza Reportage

Quelle surprise, eh?

Update: What can I say? The Ceeb brings out the Emily Dickinson in moi:
The Ceeb claims its coverage is "neutral,"
Which is obviously less than trut'ful.
Its leftist perspective
Remains a directive.
To complain will never be fruitful.

Animal Cruelty?

The Top 7 Dog Names Inspired By Jewish Food (h/t: NDA)

Just so you know where I stand on the subject, I would never name my dog, say, Gefilte Fish. 

"Absurd?" Not So Much. In Fact, Not In the Least

Anyone who thinks that Nikki Haley's sage remarks are "absurd" doesn't understand the meaning of the word--or the reality of Hamas goosed Gazans.



A Difference of Opinion Re the Gaza Fracas

Hands up everyone who agrees that shooting Hamas-goosed would-be border breechers "won't help Israel." I don't see your hand there, David French.

Update: It's a win-win for Hamas--and a lose-lose for Hamas goosed sniper fodder.

Update: Dershowitz: Media 'Incentivizes & Encourages' Hamas With Biased Coverage

Phrase of the Day: "Hamas-Goosed Gazans"

 You'll find it here, in Barbara Kay's latest NatPo column.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Harry & Megan Wedding Paraphernalia

There are tea towels and mugs and other assorted and altogether typical tchotchkes (many of which can be found here), but this one's my fave:

Image result for prince harry wedding knicknacks

"Wonder What the Black Panthers Eat Here on the Hors D'Oevres Trail?"

A line that could have been written only by the great (and now, sadly, the late) Tom Wolfe

And, yes, the words are from that iconic "New Journalism" piece about a party chez the Leonard Bernsteins; the soiree gave rise to the phrase "radical chic," one of Wolfe's cheekiest and most memorable coinages.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Why Israel Resists Self-Annihilation--and Europe Does Not

Douglas Murray expatiates on a guilt-ridden and therefore suicidal Europe even as Israel, the Jewish state that has defended its right to exist for 70 years and that is not suffering from civilizational ennui, takes steps to close its borders to Arab eliminationists. (H/t to BS for the Murray video).

Update: Here's the truth about the Gaza "revolt.'

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Friday, May 11, 2018

Losers

A tip o' the hat to MW for this one:

Toronto Rally for Gaza and Commemorating 70 Years of Nakba

DATE: May 12, 2018
TIME: 1:30-3 PM
WHERE: 180 Bloor St. W
WHAT: Rally
Join us as we commemorate 70 years of NAKBA, and as we stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza who are marching for their right of return!
In 1948, Zionist forces expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes to create the state of Israel. Palestinians commemorate this tragedy as the Nakba – the Palestinian Catastrophe.
The ethnic cleansing campaign left hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages destroyed in its wake, and turned two-thirds of the Palestinian people into refugees still struggling for their inalienable right to return—a right enshrined in international law and stipulated in UN General Assembly resolution 194.
On March 30, 2018, on the annual Palestinian Land Day, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza marched to the militarized boundary fence to demand their right to return and an end to Israel’s illegal blockade. They were met with violence as Israeli snipers took position behind the fence and above the hills to shoot at the protesters. So far, at least 35 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured.
Palestinian civil society has reiterated its call for a global arms embargo on Israel. It’s time for Canada to comply.
This demonstration is proudly organized as the launching event of the Association of Progressive Palestinian Canadians.
Contact us to endorse this rally or for media inquiries: info@appccanada.com
#AmYisraelChai, eliminationists! 
Image result for l for loser sign gif

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Spins a Web

Mark Steyn should take the credit--or blame--for this one (a reworking of this one):
Schneiderman, Schneiderman,
Hypocritical Schneiderman.
Hits the chicks just for laughs.
It's just one of his many gaffes.
Buh bye! There goes that Schneiderman.

Was he "brave"? Yesiree!
Had a fan in Samantha Bee.
Such panache; full of pluck.
Bashed some mashers like Harv and Chuck.
Meanwhile, he was the Schneiderman.

In the still of night,
With his lover in bed,
He's alleged to have struck
And lashed out 'til she bled.

Schneiderman, Schneiderman, 
Twisted, mis'rable Schneiderman.
Wore a mask; so PC.
Now he reels in ignominy.
He's trapped! Caught in the hype and foment.
Having a MeToo moment.
Won't miss that Schneiderman.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Some Oz-some News!

Ding dong the deal is dead.
Which old deal?
Obama's deal.
Ding dong the Iran deal is dead.
Got not a tear to shed.
A crappy deal's been put to bed.
Ding dong, that dreadful deal is dead.
It's gone up in smoke you know. 
Our foe, yo ho, is such a schmo.
Let's sober up and crow,
"The joke is on Khamenei!"
Ding dong, some sanity
Has now arrived,
Finally.
Suddenly, that wretched deal is dead!




The Modus Operandi In Justin's Trudeaupia

If you're a big 'n' small "C" conservative, and, based on your Christian religious beliefs, you're not a fan of same-sex marriage, you can expect to be unceremoniously turfed out on your keester. If, however, you're an Islamist cleric who disdains the gays, your religious racket can pony up for--and, courtesy the hyper-beneficent Trudeau Government, actually receive--a newly-minted "Canada Summer Jobs Grant."

Don't try going cap in hand for the moolah if you're not of that particular religious persuasion, though. In this, the best of all possible Trudeaupias, you must know that that's a non-starter.